Ellevation Education Interview Questions
& Process

I got through the first three stages of the interview process, which included a SparkHire video, a written assignment, and a 1.5 hour Zoom call. They sent a somewhat unclear email saying they decided to move forward with other candidates. I reached out for some feedback to help me improve for the future, but I never heard back. I'm actually not sure what they were looking for, even after completing those steps. I really like the company's mission and values, so I hope they find the right person.

The interview process spanned about a month. It included a chat with the design manager, a white-boarding session, a take-home design task, and finally, interviews with a panel of cross-functional folks, the VP of Product, and the CEO. The first meeting with the design manager was to go over my background and see if it was a good match. I shared a portfolio piece and got to ask about the company and team. The white-boarding exercise involved a design prompt and an online whiteboard. The goal seemed to be more about my thought process than a finished design. I sketched out some wireframes and explained my reasoning, which was good enough. The interviews with the panel, VP, and CEO were pretty similar, asking about past projects, handling disagreements, and measuring success. Honestly, those seemed a bit redundant and could have been combined. Despite that, it was a good experience, and I accepted their offer.

The interview process started with a one-way Sparkvue interview focusing on basic background questions. Then, there was a written exercise that required significant effort, involving troubleshooting on their platform to answer six questions. This was followed by a two-hour interview with different teams. I felt the interview went well and received positive feedback. The final interviewer even mentioned they would 'be in touch with next steps,' which I thought was a good sign for an offer. After about a week and a half with no communication, I received an email stating they 'went ahead with another candidate.' However, the job listing is still active. I had a good experience until they seemed to mislead me during the interview and were untruthful in their follow-up. I know they've hired people for this role with less experience, so I'm unsure what happened. It seems they've been trying to fill this position for a couple of months, so I suspect the hiring manager is being very selective.

The first phone interview I had didn't really prepare me for the in-person interview, which was quite strange. I thought interviewing with three people wouldn't be a big deal, but it was off-putting when one of the interviewers didn't even introduce herself, and then didn't shake my hand or say goodbye as I was leaving. That felt really unprofessional and rude. The other two interviewers did introduce themselves and shook my hand when I left. I'm sure my interview wasn't perfect, but I was so thrown off by that lack of introduction. Plus, some things they told me on the phone were contradicted during the interview. I was explicitly told on the phone that 'training would be 90 days.' When I asked about this during the interview, they said training doesn't take that long, but they do have a 90-day probation period, which makes more sense. Still, I felt silly asking about 90-day training in person. Having three interviewers at once felt like too much. To make things worse, they were all on their laptops using some HR interviewing program to make notes to each other during the interview. It was really distracting. One minute I'd be confidently answering a question and making eye contact, and the next I'd hear keyboard clicking and they'd look away. I know you get some of that in any interview, but it felt particularly distracting this time. I left the interview feeling uneasy. Like I said, being thrown off probably made for a worse interview experience, but honestly, I'm glad I didn't get the job. With one interviewer not introducing herself or saying goodbye (she didn't even look at me as I left after shaking the hands of the other two), I'm not sure what the company culture is like, even though it seemed pretty friendly and open from the outside.